Isaiah 58 Ministry

Bringing hope to the Bateyes

Sugar cane is the most important crop to the economy of the Dominican Republic, and is fueled primarily by the labor of Haitian and Dominican workers living in sugar cane villages or “bateyes”. A batey (pronounced BAH-tay) is a small, company-owned labor camp set amidst the cane fields where the cane workers live in the most deplorable conditions. Latrines are typically not available. Electricity is, at best, intermittent. Potable water is rare. Health care and education are virtually non-existent.

Barracks in one of the bateyes served by HOH.

It is estimated that nearly a half million people populate Dominican bateyes. These cane workers and their families live in abject poverty at the very margins of society in the Dominican Republic, worlds away from the exclusive luxury and idyllic settings of the nearby vacation resorts the DR has become so famous for. Lacking the benefits and protection of Dominican citizenship, and forced to live and work in unthinkable conditions, the people of the bateyes exist in isolation and social exclusion. They hold little hope for ever breaking free of the chains of extreme poverty.

MannaPack Rice, provided by FMSC, is fortified to meet the nutritional needs of the world's starving children

Handfuls of Hope is reaching into the bateyes with the life-giving hope of Jesus Christ and we believe that hope begins as we help to meet the most urgent and basic needs via our Isaiah 58 food ministry. We have partnered with Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a world-wide ministry whose mission is to feed God's children. FMSC provides hand-packed meals, specially formulated for malnourished children, to partners around the world. Handfuls of Hope pays for the cost of shipping, storage, and preparation and we are privileged to distribute food to the needy via our Isaiah 58 ministry.